Audio: Bloom’s First Activist Forum: Movement Building for Global Justice

national | irish social forum | news report Saturday November 08, 2008 19:37 by Andrew - WSM (personal capacity)

Bloom’s First Activist Forum: Movement Building for Global Justice took place Saturday 8tj November in the Teachers Club in Dublin. This is a recording of the ‘Grassroots Mobilisation in Ireland: Opportunities and Challenges’ session.

The speakers

The speakers were

Claire O’Grady Walshe
Clare O’Grady Walshe is a graduate of UCC
where she received a masters degree in
sociology, specialising in social movements
in Latin America. She was on the first Irish
coffee brigade to Nicaragua in 1988. She
is former director of Greenpeace in Ireland
and has served on the Irish Aid Advisory
Committee and the Heritage Council.
She is co-ordinator of Afri’s Development
Education Programme.

Jean Somers
Jean Somers has been active in global
justice struggles in Ireland for many years.
She was the co-ordinator of Debt and
Development Coalition Ireland for over a
decade where she led campaigns in Ireland
for debt cancellation in the Global South.
She is currently researching the power
of transnational civil society networks in
influencing debt and adjustment in the
Global South and works in the community
and voluntary sector.

Gregor Kerr
Gregor Kerr is a long standing activist
based in Dublin. He has been involved
in many community and trade union
campaigns in Ireland. These include many
community campaigns such as the anti
water charges campaign in the 1990’s.

Eric Yao
Eric Yao is the Co-ordinator of the Africa
Centre in Dublin. Eric’s activism started
when he was a student in Poland from 1989
to1995 and was involved in campaigning
on human rights issues affecting African
students. He also worked with the Africa
Centre for Democracy and Human rights
Studies in The Gambia from 1997 to 2000.